-- THE ARCHIVE --

UNITED KINGDOM
School CP - February 1969

Times Educational Supplement, London, 14 February 1969

Rods in young hands

Mr. Short, Secretary of State for Education and Science, has
agreed to reconsider withdrawing recognition from schools where
pupils are allowed to administer corporal punishment to their
fellows.

In the House of Commons last week Mr. Gwilym Roberts, Labour
M.P. for South Bedfordshire, asked him what figures were
available in his department for the number of schools in England
and Wales where corporal punishment of pupils by other pupils was
permitted and if he would withdraw recognition from such schools.

Mr. Short said the answer to the first part was
"none" but he would consider the second part.

Mr. R.W. Powell, headmaster of Sherborne School, Dorset, one
of the few schools in the country where such punishment is
permitted, was not unduly perturbed by Mr. Short's decision.
"The great thing about the independent schools is that if
parents send their sons to them they know what the system of
punishment is", he said.

A spot check of boys at Brentwood School in Essex, where
corporal punishment of pupils by other pupils still exists in
theory (it was last used four years ago) showed that 5 per cent
of the boys thought such punishment was a good idea, 5 per cent
though it was bad, and 90 per cent believed it was all right if
it was the accepted practice within the establishment.